my boy

this thursday night, my son is going to his prom. he's renting a tux, and might even be taking a date, sort of (the sister of a friend, with whom he as an agreement: if neither one has a date by thursday, they'll go together).

my son is 15, and he's an aspie. he attends a school where all the kids have some sort of diagnosis. some of them have depression, some have anger management issues, and some are, like my son, on the autistic spectrum. i don't know exactly why most of them are there, but there's a whole range of kids at his school, and all of them have problems that made their previous school situation NOT GOOD. he's been going there 3 years now, and it has made a big difference. he has friends--though he seldom goes anywhere--and he doesn't come home angry all the time anymore, or dread going to school. he WANTS to go to school. he doesn't LOVE it, and he is lazy about doing homework, but he WANTS to be there. this is a huge relief, after what we went through at his previous school (i should write about that sometime, i suppose).

we've had a few serious chats lately, my boy and i. we have talked about drugs and drinking (i'm a realist. i want him to be safe, period.), about sexting and cyberbullying, about skipping classes and showing respect to teachers and students. he went for a routine physical the other day, and we discussed why i wanted him to get the HPV vaccine. on thursday night, before i take his picture in that tux, i intend to surreptitiously put a Trojan into the pocket of his jacket. i doubt he'll have occasion to use it, but i want him to know it matters. maybe he'll be embarrassed when he finds it, and maybe we'll talk about that.